George Clooney as Jack Ryan?

Set your Clancy system to “Rumour”

CIA agent Jack Ryan just won’t die. The latest thesp linked to the role? George Clooney.

“But totalfilm.com,” we hear you ask in the manner of a Victorian orphan, “doesn’t he get linked to just about every role short of the lead in the Buffy reboot?” And you would be right.

This particular rumour comes from a recent story on The Daily Beast reporting that Clooney's production company is jumping to Sony.

Buried inside the piece was this nugget: "A source says he expressed interest in playing Jack Ryan when and if Paramount attempts to revive the Tom Clancy series.”

The Ryan series always seems to be in flux: Ryan Gosling has been linked with the role and Sam Raimi had been trying to get it restarted, though he's now busy with something else. Spider-thingy? Is that it?

Anyhoo, if Paramount thinks it can get Clooney, chances are it’ll jump at it, but we’re not going to say it’ll ever happen.